


Happy Endings

by al_holland



Series: Prompted [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Comfort, Family Fluff, Gen, Hokage Hatake Kakashi, Minor Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke, Past Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke, Team as Family, kakashi is a terrible babysitter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-20
Updated: 2021-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-29 02:01:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30149052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/al_holland/pseuds/al_holland
Summary: “Did you…know my dad?” she asked timidly. Kakashi got the feeling Sakura was not one to entertain this request very often, if Sarada’s shifty eyes and pink cheeks were anything to go by. “Could you tell me about him? And mama?”-Kakashi tells Sarada a series of bedtime stories
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Uchiha Sarada
Series: Prompted [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2222781
Comments: 17
Kudos: 53





	Happy Endings

**Author's Note:**

> written for the prompt "What happened to their happily ever after?" "Not all those love stories get a happily ever after, sometimes it's just once upon a time" on tumblr. It's a lil piece but I'm proud of it so I will plop her here

There was something to be said about the fact that his most gifted medic was, for all intents and purposes, a single mother to a very precocious child. Sarada was the spitting image of Sasuke, but everything in her countenance screamed Sakura. He never knew a child to be so shrewd. Well, aside from himself, anyway.

Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have gotten involved. But, these circumstances were anything but normal; Sakura was his former pupil-become-friend. Sort of. He couldn’t very well demand her presence at the hospital and leave her young daughter to her own devices within the Uchiha compound.

No, instead, he’d demanded that one of the other parent-type shinobi take on the littlest Uchiha for the night. They had all adamantly refused, and now he understood why.

Sarada peered at him over her red-rimmed glasses, strapped to her little head with a thick rubber band, but all the ridiculous spectacles in the world could not diminish the dark eyes narrowed at him in suspicion as he paraphrased and skipped over entire sections in the bedtime story he was meant to be reading her.

“That’s not how it goes,” she said for the fifth time in the last five minutes.

“If you already know how it goes, why am I reading it?” he challenged. Her eyes narrowed further.

“Because I’m five and my mama said you have to,” she said.

“You know, she really takes orders from me? I’m her boss,” he pointed out, not entirely sure what he expected this five-year-old to do about it.

“Mama doesn’t take orders from anyone,” she said with a proud smile, like Sakura had trained her to say it. He wouldn’t have been surprised if she had done just that. He slumped over in the tiny wooden chair that was definitely not built for a grown man.

“Alright, kid, I’m gonna level with you; I’m not cut out for this bedtime story thing.”

“You’re telling me,” she said with a little scoff, popping her arms out from under her blankets to take the book from his lap. She flipped through the pages, skimming over all of them until one of them pleased her. “These aren’t my favourites, anyway,” she admitted. “My favourite is when mama tells me different stories. Without reading,” she said, her dark eyes big and imploring.

“You want me to make it up?” he asked doubtfully. Her cheeks went a little pink.

“Did you…know my dad?” she asked timidly. Kakashi got the feeling Sakura was not one to entertain this request very often, if Sarada’s shifty eyes and pink cheeks were anything to go by. “Could you tell me about him? And mama?”

“No way,” he said, knowing Sakura was probably going to give him shit for it later. But, right now, his main concern was that he was sat on a chair built for a toddler, and his legs were quickly going numb. At this rate, he would have to ask the ANBU guards stationed outside this house to carry him home. “I’ll tell you something better,” he promised.

Mollified, Sarada tucked herself lower into her bed, staring up at him impatiently. He launched into the story of her parents without telling her it was about them.

Sasuke and Sakura; where to begin. He supposed the beginning would do. So he started her off with their beginnings as he knew them; the genin team, where Sakura had been the brightest by far, but often overshadowed. Sarada, an academy student herself, was deeply invested in the details of Team Seven’s early days. Before he knew it, she was yawning uncontrollably and those dark eyes were falling shut despite all her efforts.

He made himself a tea and sat on the big couch in their house until Sakura came slumping in after a long night at the hospital. She was surprised to see him there, thanking him profusely before pouring herself into her own bed.

* * *

The next time it happened, he hadn’t even bothered asking anyone else to look after Sarada, even though he promised Sakura he would. Now that he knew how to get the little demon to conk out quickly, it would be a walk in the park. Besides, Sakura had bragged to just about everyone that Sarada apparently loved him, and wouldn’t stop talking about him. He just hoped the girl kept their story to herself.

She didn’t even bother with a book this time; she just laid on her pillow and stared up at him until he began. The story took an unpleasant turn here, and he was worried about telling her all the hardships her parents had faced as children. He shouldn’t have been; this was a reality of the shinobi world, a world that Sarada was a part of. Still, he tried to handle Sasuke’s running away and various attempts at killing Naruto and Sakura as delicately as possible.

“Didn’t he love them?” Sarada asked, looking sad.

“Yes, he did,” Kakashi said with absolute certainty. “But sometimes that’s not enough,” he finished.

“You shouldn’t leave people you love,” Sarada said adamantly, and Kakashi realized that perhaps this was not the version of this story to be telling her. Thankfully, she drifted off shortly thereafter.

It was a while before his storytelling was put to the test again, but it seemed no time had passed at all for Sarada. She was as deeply invested in the story as ever, bursting with questions and ready to hear more.

He jumped right into it; talking about a formidable clan, a noble and strong clan, and Sasuke’s dedication to that clan. He skipped over the nastier intricacies—like the slaughter and fratricide—and focused in on the devotion Team Seven had for one another. Sarada didn’t seem overly suspicious of his sugar-coating, and allowed him to continue on uninterrupted. 

“Why did they keep fighting so hard to save someone who didn’t want to be saved?” she asked, a little knot appearing above her brows, just as Sakura’s did when she worried.

“That’s what you do for family,” he explained. “You stick by them, no matter what.” Her knotted brow eased slightly.

The next story time brought them to the war; the rejoining of forces, Sasuke’s return to Konoha’s side, fighting alongside his remaining family, and saving the world. Sarada seemed a little more appeased by this part of the story, taking particular interest in hearing about Sakura’s healing prowess on the battlefield.

“She saved all those lives?” she asked with wide eyes.

“Yes, but let’s not forget it was a team effort. The leader also saved many lives,” he said, the leader being him. She didn’t particularly care. He wondered if Sakura had actively instilled her general disregard for him as a leader in her daughter, or if this behaviour was hereditary.

The only thing more impressive than Sakura keeping Naruto’s heart pumping by shoving her hand into his body was the fact that she had punched a goddess in the face.

“And then she saved her other team members? After all that?” she asked, her eyes wide. Kakashi realized belatedly that he had meant to tell her a small romance about her parents, but instead had exalted her mother for the better part of it all. He supposed that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Perhaps Sakura wouldn’t be so mad at him, should she find out.

But, of course, impudent as she was, Sarada made it clear that he would likely never be safe from Sakura’s wrath.

“So, they went through all that to save him, but he still left,” she said, a deep line appearing between her brows.

“He left to protect them,” Kakashi explained. Sarada did not look convinced.

“He didn’t leave for her,” Sarada said, rolling her eyes behind those thick red frames. “Does he come back?”

“Yes, eventually,” Kakashi said, feeling uneasy. “But he leaves again because he thinks it’s the right thing to do.”

“He’s wrong,” Sarada said. “I’m five and I know that. What happened to their happily ever after?” she complained. Kakashi had forgotten among all her quips and questions that she really was just a five-year-old girl.

“Not all those love stories get a happily ever after. Sometimes it's just once upon a time.”

“This story sucks, Hokage-sama,” she complained.

He found himself agreeing. He had always kept his reservations about Sasuke’s absence to himself, but it was hard to deny that his daughter certainly seemed to have a better understanding of duty than he did currently.

“Do you think my dad will come back?” she asked suddenly. “Do you think he loves us?”

“I’m sure of it,” he answered as quickly as his mouth would let him speak.

“But he’s not here now,” she said, her eyelids slowly getting heavier and her words slurring with sleepiness. “I’m glad you’re here, Hokage-sama.”

“Me too, kid.”

“Does that mean we’re family?” she asked softly. He didn’t know what to say.

“I guess it does.” And just like that, she was out.

* * *

“Hey, Kakashi?” Sakura poked her head into his office, her brow knotted and eyes narrowed at him.

“Hm?” he answered, barely sparing her a glance as he reviewed his pile of mission scrolls.

“Just a quick question for you,” she said, her voice dripping in suspicion. He felt his shoulders tense. “Why the fuck does my daughter keep telling people you’re her dad?”

**Author's Note:**

> am still accepting prompts on tumblr, if u are so inclined!! find me @ bl1ndbraavosi


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